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Category Archives: Leadership Development

Developing the right leaders is always a sound investment – even on a tight budget

In BC HRMA’s recent survey of HR practitioners:

  • 60% indicated turnover and recruitment were among their top three challenges
  • 40% felt a lack of leadership capacity would impact their organization significantly
  • HR is becoming more complex, with issues such as measurement and metrics (35%) being added to the agenda

Despite these priorities, 72% said budget would stay the same or even decline

So how do we address these challenges?

No challenge is an island

There is no surprise that these trends are highly interrelated. Recruitment needs are directly impacted by turnover, high turnover is typically caused by low engagement, and engagement depends on leadership. Organizations expect to see measurable returns on their investments in leadership. It is metrics that will help HR’s secure the budget it needs. The only logical response to these challenges is to tackle these factors holistically.

Get the biggest bang for your buck

Start with leadership. Strong leadership improves retention and there’s plenty of empirical evidence to prove the value of leaders to business. An organization recently wanted to improve specific engagement survey items. Working with their leaders (from senior to first level), they had conversations that asked focused questions like, “Which survey items can you significantly impact?” Leader after leader said “most of them.”

You don’t need to break the bank

Surprisingly, you can build leadership capacity on a small budget. Here are some ideas:

Be selective. Many organizations are unable to put all their leaders through a development program. You can provide all your leaders with development opportunities, but handpick those who can impact business results the most to undergo a more extensive experience.

Bring it in-house. Instead of putting leaders through external and discrete developmental opportunities, bring leadership “in-house” by putting groups of them through a program. Since the cost of most development activities (e.g. a workshop) are fixed, put as many leaders as possible through a program to achieve economies of scale. Twenty people tends to be a good number.

Make it a process. Avoid one-off experiences – they’re ineffective. Stretch leadership development activity over six to eight months. This yields greater value by increasing the likelihood of real behaviour change.

Use experience. Adults learn best by doing. Create “assignments” that stretch leaders, such as action learning and cross-functional rotations, and ask the leader to mentor someone. All of this can be implemented at little or no cost.

Use peer coaching triads. While professional coaching is one of the most powerful development tools, it does drive cost significantly. Show participants how to implement self-directed peer coaching triads, and combine this with some professional coaching to create a powerful experience at greatly reduced cost.

But you do need to make an investment

How much would you expect to pay for a leadership development program that is tailored to your organization and includes core elements such as a custom 360-degree assessment, personalized leadership development plans, two to three skills training workshops, action learning, peer coaching, and ongoing feedback and measurement?

You might be surprised. A comprehensive program such as the one outlined above is not necessarily going to cost you an arm and a leg and the return on the investment to your organization far outweighs the cost.

The cost of a comprehensive leadership program delivered in-house typically runs in the range of $800 to $1,200 per participant, roughly one fifth of the cost of a similar institutional program.

So how do you know your money is well spent?

Measurement is key. Without robust measurement it is hard to determine whether your investment has been a sound one. An effective program should incorporate on-going measurement of both participant and overall results. Together these measures will give you an excellent view of the impact your program has had. In a developmental initiative that we’ve been involved in recently at Dominion Construction, every participant was confidentially rated by observers on changes the participant had made over time in their targeted leadership area. Ninety per cent were observed to be more effective.

In conclusion …

Be sure to approach leadership development strategically, be smart in your design to achieve cost savings and measure well to convince decision makers that you’re onto something.

Kwela Leadership is a member of 24 Carrot Learning – view their profile here.

Positive Development – An Ongoing Process

Good leaders are pioneers.  They know how important it is to be looking beyond what they’re comfortable with, and being open to trying new things.  They understand that a certain amount of risk is healthy, and that a failure is only a true failure when they don’t learn anything from it.

Good leaders enjoy challenge, and welcome opportunities to test their abilities and skills.  They create opportunities to succeed, and know that many successes will add up to great accomplishments.

Good leaders also create the kind of environment where others feel comfortable taking risks and experimenting, knowing that they are allowed and even encouraged to fail sometimes too, thereby creating more opportunities to learn and grow.

Remember, if you’re not seeking out challenges, being innovative, or finding new, more efficient ways of doing things, then you’re effectively moving backwards.  Why?  Because you can be sure that your competition will be looking for ways to grow, develop and improve themselves and their product and services.

Here are some ways you can add challenge and healthy risk-taking to your work:  look outside your organization for new ideas; ask why things are done a certain way, and never stop looking for a better way; look for opportunities to create “small wins”; encourage healthy risk-taking in others; and look for the learning opportunities in “failures”.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

Have you ever spent all day in a corporate training seminar that seemed really valuable at the time, but then a few months down the line you found that nothing had really changed? We’ve all been to these types of events, we’ve gotten some decent lunches out of it, but that’s about all.

Classroom training is important, but it will likely not change behaviour. The carefully structured Leader’s Edge program, in addition to training and individual coaching, provides you with follow-up and on-going assessment processes and assistance to ensure the development of positive, productive behaviour.

Research indicates that when participants know that surveys or other methods of measuring process are slated to occur 3 to 15 months from the date of a training program, a higher level of commitment is created. The Leader’s Edge program includes a series of self and group assessment and The Leader’s Edge experts will assess and share the data with participants in a manner of structured on-going learning.

That equals quantifiable data and processes to go back to in order to continue your leadership management or personal career training beyond your involvement in the program. Also, by engaging in a formal program you’ll create a support system for your employees who are in leadership positions.  Positive development-it’s ongoing!

The Leader’s Edge
The difference between Leader’s Edge and many of the other corporate training operations out there is that we rely on tested, practical and quantifiable ways to improve teamwork and efficiency in the workplace. Participants who come through the program approach their work with renewed purpose and applicable communication and productivity skills they put to use right away.